SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

NEWS AND VIEWS

BOB WOODWARD'S NEWEST BOOK, "FEAR" IS ABOUT TO BE OUT (TOMORROW, MAYBE) AND HIS INTERVIEW IS VERY EXPLICIT ABOUT HIS FEARS OF WHAT IS HAPPENING. I HOPE HE IS REMOVED FROM OFFICE SOONER AND NOT LATER. BUT YOU KNOW THAT. TO HEAR PEOPLE OF THE STATUS OF BOB WOODWARD SAY THE SAME THINGS, AND ESPECIALLY SO MANY OF THEM, I FEEL THAT TRUMP IS BEING WATCHED, AT LEAST. I WANT TO THINK THAT THE FBI AND OTHERS WHO COULD IF THERE WERE A NEED PHYSICALLY REMOVE HIM FROM THE WHITE HOUSE AND PUT HIM IN A NICE, QUIET, KINDLY RUN LOCKED WARD.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bob-woodward-fear-trump-in-the-white-house-people-better-wake-up-to-whats-going-on-in-the-oval-office/
CBS NEWS September 9, 2018, 9:51 AM
Bob Woodward: "People better wake up to what's going on" in the Oval Office

VIDEO – WOODWARD INTERVIEW

Watergate journalist Bob Woodward made headlines once again this past week, with his new book about the Trump White House, entitled "Fear." This morning, in his first TV interview, Woodward paints a picture for our David Martin of an administration in disarray:

"You look at the operation of this White House and you have to say, 'Let's hope to God we don't have a crisis,'" said Bob Woodward.

For the Washington Post reporter, that is the bottom line to all the jaw-dropping chaos and discord described in his new book, "Fear: Trump in the White House" (published by Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS).

woodward-fear-book-cover-inset-244.jpg
SIMON & SCHUSTER

"People who work for him are worried ... that he will sign things or give orders that threaten the national security or the financial security of the country, or of the world," Woodward said.

Aides like then-Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn and White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter literally stole documents off the president's desk in the Oval Office, such as a letter terminating a trade agreement with South Korea, so that, Woodward explained, Mr. Trump could not sign them: "Because they realized that this would endanger the country."

Martin asked, "How'd they get away with that?"

"[Trump] doesn't remember. If it's not on his desk, if it's not immediately available for action, it goes away."

Unelected officials like Cohn and Porter intentionally thwarting the actions of the elected president – the exact reverse of what a White House staff is supposed to do.

Going back to Richard Nixon and Watergate, this is the ninth White House Woodward has covered. "In the eight others," he said, "I never heard of people on the staff in the White House engaging in that kind of extreme action."

In Woodward's telling, President Trump does not see America as the indispensable nation; he sees it as an international sucker taken advantage of by allies and trading partners. He complained his advisors "don't know anything about business. All they want to is protect everybody … that we pay for."

According to Woodward, the president is obsessed by the fact that the U.S. pays $3.5 billion a year to station troops in South Korea as a first line of defense against the North. "I don't know why they're there," he said at one meeting. "Let's bring them all home." At another meeting, Secretary of Defense James Mattis starkly why the U.S. has 28,000 troops in Korea: "We're doing this in order to prevent World War III."

"The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea." - President Trump at the United Nation, Sept. 19, 2017

The standoff with North Korea has been eased, for the moment, by the Singapore Summit, which brought together two leaders who had been trading nuclear threats and schoolyard insults.

Trump: "'Rocket Man' is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime."

The president later made that "Little Rocket Man" on Twitter, which he told Rob Porter "may be my best ever." When Porter asked if it might provoke Kim, according to Woodward, the president replied, "It's leader versus leader, man versus man, me versus Kim."

The most dangerous moment of the standoff, Woodward says, came when the president went to work on another tweet: "He drafts a tweet saying 'We are going to pull out dependents from South Korea ... Family members of the 28,000 people there.'"

That tweet was never sent, because of a back channel message from North Korea that it would regard a pullout of dependents as a sign the U.S. was preparing to attack. "At that moment there was a sense of profound alarm in the Pentagon leadership that, 'My God, one tweet and we have reliable information that the North Koreans are going to read this as an attack is imminent,'" Woodward said.

The president surrounded himself with generals – active duty and retired – all of whom had served in Afghanistan. But before he decided on a new Afghan strategy, he insisted on meeting with enlisted men who had served there as well. In a meeting the next day, he lashed out at the generals: "I don't care about you guys," he said to Mattis, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph Dunford, and then-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. "'The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you,' he says to Mattis and Dunford, and there is a 25-minute dressing down of the generals and senior officials," said Woodward.

In a recent tweet, the president acknowledged: "I'm tough as hell on people and if I weren't nothing would get done."

When he didn't like a trade deal Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had negotiated with China, the president lit into him at a White House meeting: "It's a terrible deal. We got screwed. ... You're past your prime. You're not a good negotiator anymore. ... you've lost it. I don't trust you."

When Economic Adviser Gary Cohn was upset over the president's reluctance to condemn white supremacists for the violence in Charlottesville he went into the Oval Office to resign. According to Woodward, "Trump said, 'You can't resign. I need you to do tax reform. If you leave, this is treason.' And Trump talked him out of resigning."

Afterwards, Chief of Staff John Kelly, who had been in the room, pulled Cohn aside: "Cohn wrote this down, quote from General Kelly: 'If that was me I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his *** six different times.'"

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Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, interviewed by CBS News' David Martin. CBS NEWS

The president has been bracing for Woodward's book since last month when the two lamented – or at least pretended to lament – that they had not talked.

Woodward recorded the phone conversation, with the president's permission:

Trump: "It's really too bad because nobody told me about it, and I would've loved to have spoken to you. You know I'm very open to you. I think you've always been fair."
Woodward: "It's a tough look at the world and your administration and you."
Trump: "Right. Well, I assume that means it's going to be a negative book. ... That's all right. Some are good and some are bad. Sounds like this is going to be a bad one."

Last week, when the contents of "Fear" began to leak ahead of its scheduled publication, the president said it was worse than bad. "The book is a work of fiction," Mr. Trump argued. "If you look back at Woodward's past, he had the same problem with other presidents. He likes to get publicity, sell some books."

Martin said, "He's added 'fake books' to his complaints about 'fake news.' Are you ready for a tweetstorm directed at you?"

"I've been there before," Woodward replied.

In the 1970s Woodward's stories (written with Carl Bernstein) on Richard Nixon and Watergate were repeatedly denounced (Press Secretary Ron Ziegler said, "We respect the free press, I respect the free press; I don't respect the type of journalism, the shabby journalism that is being practiced by the Washington Post"), until the White House was forced to apologize.

Working on this book, Woodward says he went back to the days of his youth when he and Bernstein made late-night visits to the homes of potential sources.

Woodward recalled, "In one case I called somebody at 11 o'clock at night and said I'd like to talk. 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get to it.' And I said, 'Well, how about now?' And he said, 'Now? It's 11 at night!' And I said, 'I'm four minutes away.' 'Okay, come on over for a while.'"

He doesn't identify his sources, but most readers will conclude he talked to both Gary Cohn and Rob Porter, along with several other White House officials who quit or were fired.

Martin said, "The criticism would be, 'You've talked to the people who have an axe to grind against the president.'"

"Well, that's just not true," he replied. "Look, I talked to dozens and dozens of people, and have notes and documentation on lots of things."

Woodward quotes harsh criticism of the president from some of his closest advisers. Chief of Staff Kelly called his boss an "idiot." Secretary of Defense Mattis said the commander-in-chief acted like, and had the understanding of, "a fifth- or sixth-grader." Both men have denied saying such things.

And the president continues to denounce the book at every turn. At a rally Friday night Mr. Trump said, "These guys that write books and they put phony quotes out all over the – totally phony quotes. I mean, totally, like, fraudulent books. They're, like, fraudulent books!"

Martin asked, "He says the quotes are just not the way he speaks and the quotes are fabricated. What do you say to that?"

Woodward said, "He's wrong, and my reporting is meticulous and careful."

In a second interview with CBS' "Sunday Morning," Woodward said he had multiple sources for every claim in the book: "Multiple interviews with key witnesses. One person I interviewed nine times, and the transcripts of those conversations are 700 or 800 pages."

"700-800 pages for one person?"

"Yes, sir."

"How many people did you interview?"

"Over a hundred. I would say that maybe half of those are key people."

The theme of Woodward's book – that aides fear what the president might do if allowed to follow his impulses – received an unusual confirmation last week, when The New York Times published an anonymous article written by a person described as "a senior official in the Trump administration." "I work for the president, but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations," he or she wrote.

When asked if he knows the author's identity, Woodward said, "I have no idea who it is. It's very important, who it is. It's very important whether this is somebody who witnessed and participated. And quite frankly, if there was a person in the White House or the administration who wanted to tell me what's in that op-ed piece, I would say, 'Okay, name me who was there. What is the specific incident?' As you know, from having read my book, the dates and times and participants [are documented]."

He said that without that detail on the op-ed author's story, "I wouldn't have used it."

"Too vague?" asked Martin.

"Well, too vague, and does not meet the standards of trying to describe specific incidents. Specific incidents are the building blocks of journalism, as you well know."

"Fear: Trump in the White House" is Woodward's 19th book, and he says reporting it took him deeper inside a working White House than he's ever been before.

"This one was in the belly of the beast," he said.

Martin asked, "And what did you conclude about the beast?"

"That people better wake up to what's going on."


For more info:

"Fear: Trump in the White House" by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster), available via Amazon
bobwoodward.com
Bob Woodward at the Washington Post
Follow @realBobWoodward on Twitter

Story produced by Mary Walsh.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



"I'M NOT -- I'M NOT -- I'M NOT THINKING OF ANY RIGHT NOW, SENATOR."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brett-kavanaugh-what-weve-learned-confirmation-hearings-2018-09-08/
CBS/AP September 8, 2018, 9:31 AM
What we've learned about Brett Kavanaugh from his confirmation hearings

The less said, the better. That's the mantra of any nominee before the Senate, especially when the White House and Senate are in the same party's hands. The aim, after all, is to win confirmation, and in these partisan times, an ill-chosen phrase can be damaging to a nominee's prospects.

Like high court nominees before him, Judge Brett Kavanaugh stuck to the script during his testimony this week at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Still, Kavanaugh revealed a few things about himself, professionally and personally.

Here are a few things we learned about President Trump's choice for the high court:

The Real World

Kavanaugh said repeatedly that he is aware of the consequences of his decisions, including in his dissenting opinion that would have struck down Washington, D.C.'s ban on semi-automatic assault weapons. "And I want to reassure everyone that I base my decisions on the law, but I do so with an awareness of the facts and an awareness of the real world consequences," Kavanaugh said in one formulation. He noted that he grew up in the Washington area when there was a lot of gang and gun violence. Kavanaugh grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, which is not known for rampant gun violence.

Some Democratic senators weren't reassured, pointing to mass school shootings committed with semi-automatic rifles. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Kavanaugh's view on what gun control is permissible "is out of touch with reality." He also would not tell Sen. Patrick Leahy if 3D-printed guns could be banned.

But That's Too Real

Sen. Jeff Flake, a frequent Trump critic, posed a real-world question when he asked Kavanaugh to weigh in about Mr. Trump's recent tweet that criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department for indicting two Republican congressman ahead of the midterm elections and "putting two easy wins in doubt." Kavanaugh would not not bite on that or any question dealing with Mr. Trump's attacks on prosecutors or federal judges. "I don't think we want judges commenting on the latest political controversy," Kavanaugh said.

He also told Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse that he has not taken a position on indicting a sitting president.

Code Words

Opponents of Kavanaugh's nomination pounced on his use of certain terms in the context of abortion and affirmative action to assert that he was sending a signal to conservatives that he is on their side, despite his measured rhetoric. Explaining his opinion in a case involving religiously affiliated groups that object to paying for contraception under the Affordable Care Act, Kavanaugh referred to "abortion-inducing drugs," a term often used by abortion opponents to describe some contraceptives. Kavanaugh supporters say he was just repeating language used by the groups that filed the lawsuit, though his 2015 opinion did not use those words.

Showing Kagan Some Love

William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy may be Kavanaugh's judicial heroes, but the nominee invoked Justice Elena Kagan, a nominee of President Barack Obama, more than any of them at the hearing. Kagan's name escaped Kavanaugh's lips more than 40 times, most often to provide cover for his refusal to weigh in on issues that could come before the court. "As Justice Kagan put it, you can't as a nominee in this seat give a thumbs up or thumbs down. That was -- that's her word," he said in declining to say whether Kennedy's 2015 opinion extending same-sex marriage nationwide was correct. He answered similarly when asked about abortion and "just the whole body of modern Supreme Court case law." He repeated the "thumbs up or thumbs down" phrase several times throughout the hearings.

Kagan, incidentally, was the dean at Harvard Law School who hired Kavanaugh to teach there.

Speaking of Democratic Nominees

Kavanaugh had kind words for his appellate court colleague and chief judge, Merrick Garland, whose nomination by Obama Senate was essentially ignored by Republicans in 2016. The gamble by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell paid off when Trump won election and put Justice Neil Gorsuch in the seat that Justice Antonin Scalia held until his death.

Against that backdrop, it was somewhat surprising when some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee talked about how often Kavanaugh and Garland have voted together on the federal appeals court in Washington. "What I found that was striking is that in the 12 years you've been on the D.C. Circuit, of all the matters that you and Chief Judge Garland have voted on together, that you voted together 93 percent of the time," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Less than two weeks before the 2016 election, Cruz suggested the Senate's refusal to act on Garland's nomination might continue even if Hillary Clinton ultimately won election.

Kavanaugh called Garland "a great judge -- a great chief judge, and he's very careful, and very hardworking, and we work well together."

A Sporting Guy

Football, baseball, basketball, hockey and lacrosse all got mentions from the sports-crazed Kavanaugh, who even identified the seats he and his father had at professional football games in Washington. On his final day of testimony Thursday, Kavanaugh's two daughters were among roughly 20 girls in Catholic school uniforms — players on basketball teams he has coached — who marched into the hearing room and took up seats behind Kavanaugh to make for an irresistible, if contrived, photo op.

When Cruz asked Kavanaugh if he would utilize the basketball court above the Supreme Court chambers if confirmed, the judge eagerly replied that he would.

But the sports references didn't stop there. He called the Supreme Court a "team of nine committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States." That image stood in contrast to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' more stinging description of the court as "nine scorpions in a bottle."

The Male Body

One of the few times Kavanaugh seemed thrown, even momentarily, was when [Kamala] Harris, the California Democrat, found a new way to ask Kavanaugh about abortion.

"Can you think of any laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body?" she asked.

Kavanaugh said: "I'm happy to answer a more specific question. But..."

After a bit more back and forth, she repeated the question. Kavanaugh answered, "I'm not -- I'm not -- I'm not thinking of any right now, senator."

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.


HARRIS’ ERROR?

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/williesworld/article/Kamala-Harris-had-Kavanaugh-cornered-Then-she-13213919.php
Kamala Harris had Kavanaugh cornered. Then she gave him a way out
Photo of Willie Brown
Willie Brown Sep. 8, 2018

PHOTOGRAPHS – 2 of 2 Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., questions Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.Photo: J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press

California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris both had big roles in the confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Feinstein was her solid, studious self. Harris scored big on day one, but day two wasn’t so hot.

Rather than pursue the usual inquiry into Kavanaugh’s judicial history, Harris tapped her expertise as a former prosecutor to try to nail him on a potentially deadly subject: whether he had been talking with a President Trump-linked law firm about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Kavanaugh was clearly caught off guard, and looked for all the world like anything but an innocent man. It was a loaded question, because as a Supreme Court justice, Kavanaugh may have to rule on a case involving the Mueller probe. Admitting to earlier discussions would probably force him to recuse himself from any such case, at the least.

“I’m asking you a very direct question. Yes or no,” Harris said.

Ever seen someone duck, weave and fidget all at once while sitting down? That was Kavanaugh, for the full seven minutes and 56 seconds of the exchange.

The bell rang and both Harris and Kavanaugh went to their respective corners.

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The next day, after a night of coaching by his cornermen, Kavanaugh told Republican senators who gave him the chance to clean up that he hadn’t had any “inappropriate conversations” with lawyers at the Trump-linked firm.

Having had her moment, Harris should have moved on and spent her question time on something else.

Instead she went down the same road, lamely told Kavanaugh that she had received “reliable information” that he had talked with someone — she never said who — and got nowhere.

Harris is a good prosecutor, but she forgot that sometimes you ask a question and don’t really want a reply. It can be better to leave the jury with the impression that the witness doesn’t have a good answer.

Want to sound off? Email wbrown@sfchronicle.com

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Willie Brown

Two-term mayor of San Francisco, renowned speaker of the California Assembly, and widely regarded as the most influential African American politician of the late twentieth century, Willie L. Brown, Jr. has been at the center of California politics, government and civic life for four decades. His career spans the American presidency from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, and he’s worked with every California governor from Pat Brown to Arnold Schwarzenegger. From civil rights to education reform, tax policy, economic development, health care, international trade, domestic partnerships and affirmative action, he’s left his imprimatur on every aspect of politics and public policy in the Golden State. As mayor of California’s most cosmopolitan city, he refurbished and rebuilt the nation’s busiest transit system, pioneered the use of bond measures to build affordable housing, created a model juvenile justice system, and paved the way for a second campus of UCSF to serve as the anchor of a new development that will position the city as a center for the burgeoning field of biotechnology.

Today, he heads the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service, where he shares his knowledge and skills with a new generation of California leaders.

Past Articles from this Author:
Trump is right: White House resistance should be exposed
Even in scandal, John McCain stood tall
Trump fallout could complete Pence’s unlikely rise from obscurity


SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 -- THIS MAP IS PROJECTING A HIT ON THE BORDER OF SOUTH AND NORTH CAROLINA. THAT PREDICTION WILL UNDOUBTEDLY CHANGE NUMEROUS TIMES BEFORE IT HITS, AS ANYONE WHO HAS EVER SPENT HOURS WATCHING THESE STORMS KNOWS. A CATEGORY 4 IS EXPECTED, WITH WINDS OVER 130 MPH AND HEAVY FLOODING.

THE NEWSCAST DOES URGE THAT THOSE OF US IN NORTH FLORIDA SHOULD ALSO PREPARE, SO I WILL. LUCKILY, I DON’T HAVE A CAR ANYMORE, SO I DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT FINDING A TALL PARKING GARAGE TO PUT IT IN. I’LL BUY BOTTLED WATER AND A SECOND LED LIGHT. THE LOCAL JACKSONVILLE WEATHER, EVEN IF THE STORM HEADS NORTH COULD BE BAD IF SERIOUS WIND AND RAIN DISTURBANCES HIT HERE. WE SOMETIMES HAVE TORNADOES ASSOCIATED WITH THESE. OKAY. THAT’S MY PLANNING, SO I’LL SETTLE IN AND WAIT. TO LET YOU KNOW, THOUGH, HOW HURRICANES CAN BE, THIS IS YESTERDAY’S HEADLINE: “FLORENCE STRENGTHENS TO BECOME A HURRICANE, TAKING AIM AT SOUTHEAST.” “RAPID INTENSIFICATION” WAS THE FORECAST. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT HURRICANE AND WEATHER SCIENTISTS KNOW SO MUCH MORE THAN THEY DID “IN MY DAY.” THIS ONE DIDN’T SNEAK UP ON US.

SEPTEMBER 10 UPDATED -- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/10/hurricane-florence-driving-life-threatening-conditions-toward-east-coast/1253945002/

VIDEO -- North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said he had asked President Trump for a federal disaster declaration ahead of the storm.


"We here in North Carolina are bracing for a hard hit," Cooper said Monday. "We are taking Hurricane Florence seriously."

More: Despite 2017 hurricane season, US lacks 'culture of preparedness'

More: Will hurricanes, wildfires and volcanoes make us a go-bag people?

Dare County officials ordered everyone to leave Hatteras Island on Monday. Residents and visitors in popular tourist spots such as Duck and Corolla faced a Tuesday deadline.

"Everyone in Dare County is encouraged to evacuate as soon as possible regardless of the established time frames," the county announced.

Dare County has a year-round population of more than 30,000 people, but the population balloons during tourist seasons. It was not immediately clear how many people were being evacuated.

The hurricane center's description of a Category 4 hurricane begins with "catastrophic damage will occur." The center warns that such storms will snap or uproot most trees and down power poles and that power can be out in some areas for weeks or months.

The center of Florence was forecast to sweep between Bermuda and the Bahamas on Tuesday and Wednesday before making its assault on the U.S. coast.

"Florence is ... expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane through Thursday," the hurricane center warned.

Hurricane Florence: Tracking the storm's path

Hurricane tracker: Multiple storms roar in Atlantic

A "major" hurricane is one with sustained winds of more than 110 mph. Any Category 3, 4, or 5 hurricane is classified as a major hurricane.

The hurricane center warned that the swells are likely to cause "life-threatening" surf and current conditions. Even before the evacuation order, Dare County emergency officials warned that rough seas and strong rip currents are already creating dangerous conditions.

"Red, no swimming flags are flying and everyone must stay out of the water," Dare County Emergency Management Director Drew Pearson said.

AccuWeather meteorologist Brett Rossi said the ground in North and South Carolina and Virginia is already saturated from recent rains. Rivers are high, and the storm will be moving slowly when it arrives, exacerbating the situation, Rossi told USA TODAY.

"This is very scary rain event potentially setting up this week," Rossi said. "Florence could dump a foot of rain in places that cannot handle it, making for a very scary flooding situation in some areas."

A satellite image taken the morning of September 10, 2018, shows Hurricane Florence off the US East Coast in the Atantic Ocean. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Some portions of the Carolinas could see as much as 30-40 inches of rain from Florence, the National Weather Service said, which would lead to river flooding that "could last for days or weeks" after the storm. The Weather Channel warned of a "disastrous" level of flooding for parts of the area.

"All of the evidence points to an extreme disaster in the making in the mid-East Coast/Carolina region," said Bryan Norcross, a senior hurricane specialist with the Weather Channel.

The Navy said all ships in Virginia's coastal Hampton Roads area were preparing to leave port for open seas. South Carolina emergency management officials said they were "preparing for the possibility of a large-scale disaster."

Virginia, North and South Carolina have declared states of emergency ahead of the storm.

"The storm is strong and getting stronger," Cooper said. "The best safety plan is preparation and common sense."

Florence is now one of three hurricanes spinning in the Atlantic Ocean, along with Helene and Isaac. While Helene is forecast to slide out to sea away from land, Isaac is a very real threat in the Caribbean later this week, the hurricane center said.

In addition, in the Pacific, what's now Hurricane Olivia is forecast to approach Hawaii as a tropical storm on Tuesday.


“RAPID INTENSIFICATION” PREDICTED WITH TS FLORENCE. THAT HAS BEEN THE FORECAST WITH SOME OF OUR WORST COASTAL DISASTERS. THE STORMS ARE OFTEN UNDERRATED BY THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO BECOME BLASE ABOUT THESE STORMS, BECAUSE MOST OF THEM AREN’T AS DANGEROUS AS THE VERY WORST, SUCH AS HUGO, ANDREW AND KATRINA. ALL THREE OF THOSE BALLOONED UP INTO A MONSTER WITHIN HOURS OF LANDFALL. I HOPE THAT PATTERN WON’T OCCUR THIS TIME.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florence-tropical-storm-today-could-become-hurricane-forecast-path-track-live-updates-2018-09-07/
CBS/AP September 7, 2018, 10:02 PM
Last Updated Sep 8, 2018 11:27 AM EDT
Florence expected to become a hurricane as it heads toward East Coast

MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Florence is expected to strengthen to a hurricane on Saturday night, the National Hurricane Center says. "Rapid intensification" is forecast to begin on Sunday, and by Tuesday, the storm is expected to be a major hurricane.

"On the forecast track, the center of Florence will move over the southwestern Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and the Bahamas Tuesday and Wednesday, and approach the southeastern U.S. coast on Thursday," the center said Saturday morning in an advisory.


National Hurricane Center
✔
@NHC_Atlantic
Tropical Storm #Florence Advisory 37: Florence Becoming Better Organized. http://go.usa.gov/W3H

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Florence has created swells that are affecting Bermuda, according to the National Hurricane Center. Over the weekend, swells will reach parts of the U.S. East Coast and "are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions," it said.

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NOAA

On Friday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency. "While it's still too early to know the storm's path, we know we have to be prepared," Cooper said in a news release, CBS Raleigh affiliate WNCN reported. "During harvest, time is of the essence. Action today can avoid losses due to Florence."

Improving atmospheric conditions were expected to allow Florence to regain its former strength. The storm reached major hurricane status Wednesday, peaking with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph.

Gordon remnants to drop heavy rain

A soaking rainstorm, of which Gordon is a part, was expected to raise the risk of flooding in portions of the Ohio and middle Mississippi valleys on Saturday.

Gordon made landfall as a tropical storm on Monday and by the end of the week it was a tropical depression. Flash flood watches were in effect as of Friday night for parts of central Arkansas and Missouri into the Ohio River Valley.

"Gordon and its transition to an extra-tropical low could produce total rain accumulations of 3 to 6 inches over Missouri into the Midwest, with possible isolated maximum amounts of 10 inches through Monday. This rainfall will likely cause local flooding and flash flooding," the National Hurricane Center said Friday night.

Tropical Storm Helene

Tropical Storm Helene formed off the coast of Africa and the Cabo Verde islands late Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm is expected to bring tropical storm conditions to the Cabo Verde islands by Saturday night.

A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch was in effect for the Cabo Verde islands of Santiago, Fogo, and Brava.


National Hurricane Center
✔
@NHC_Atlantic
Tropical Storm #Helene Advisory 5: Helene Continuing Westward Toward the Southern Cabo Verde Islands. http://go.usa.gov/W3H

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Other tropical entities in Atlantic

The Atlantic is "really heating up" with multiple tropical entities, the National Weather Service tweeted Friday night. Another low pressure system off the coast of Africa behind Florence had high chances of developing into tropical storms, forecasters said.

"Since we are near the peak of hurricane season, this is a good time for everyone who lives in a hurricane-prone area to ensure they have their hurricane plan in place," hurricane specialist David Zelinsky wrote in a forecast advisory.

There's also a low pressure system near Bermuda has a 10 percent chance of becoming a storm.

The Atlantic hurricane season peaks around Sept. 10 or 11.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.


PAUL MCCARTNEY STILL HAS IT. LISTEN TO THE VIDEO.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paul-mccartney-egypt-station-grand-station-terminal-secret-concert-new-york-city-today-2018-09-07/
CBS/AP September 8, 2018, 1:43 AM
Paul McCartney gives "secret concert" at NYC's Grand Central

PHOTOGRAPH -- Sir Paul McCartney performs in concert during his One on One tour at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre on July 26, 2017 in Tinley Park, Illinois. AFP CONTRIBUTOR / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

NEW YORK -- Commuters with tickets to ride out of New York's Grand Central Terminal heard a special serenade on Friday evening, with Paul McCartney taking over a corner of the majestic hub for a concert. Before an audience of celebrities and lucky ticket holders, McCartney played an hour-long medley of new songs from his latest album and classic hits from the Beatles, CBS New York reports.

Only invited guests including Jon Bon Jovi, Meryl Streep, Amy Schumer, Kate Moss and Steve Buscemi were let behind black curtains to see the stage, but everyone could hear a 24-song set that spanned more than 50 years of music.

"I have a feeling we're going to have a bit of fun here tonight," said the former Beatles singer-songwriter before launching into "Can't Buy Me Love."

It was a stunt to promote a new album called "Egypt Station." McCartney said he wondered "what's the coolest station we could think of?" and settled on the Manhattan landmark. The band set up under a chandelier and in front of a giant clock, just off the 42nd Street entrance.

McCartney had been teasing fans for days on social media – telling them to sign up for the chance to get tickets to this surprise show – but no official announcement was made on where it will be.

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter

Paul McCartney
✔
@PaulMcCartney
To celebrate the release of #EgyptStation Paul will be livestreaming a very special gig from New York City. Watch from 8pm (ET) on @YouTube HERE https://PaulMcCartney.lnk.to/LiveFromNYC

4,217
7:46 PM - Sep 7, 2018
1,327 people are talking about this
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Despite grey streaks in his famous mop top, the 76-year-old former Beatle was in fighting trim.

He performed familiar hits like "Let it Be," ''Can't Buy Me Love," ''A Hard Day's Night" and "Lady Madonna." He also dug deeper into his songbook for "I've Got a Feeling," ''Hi Hi Hi" and "1985."

While he played three songs from his new album, McCartney did more from the 50-year-old White Album. The sweaty, dancing crowd hardly minded the trip back in time.

McCartney may be the world's most famous musician, but he's also human. Seemingly nervous as he stood on a riser in the middle of the audience with an acoustic guitar for one song, he flubbed the words to "Blackbird" not once but twice, starting over both times. Surrounding fans, famous and non-famous, knew all the lyrics and coaxed him on.

"I know this song," he said in frustration. "I wrote it!"

Before singing the Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do," McCartney told of his nerves singing the chorus and that he can still hear it in his voice when he hears the recording.

Flash forward a half century, and he talked about a writing session with Kanye West. After a few days in the studio, he wasn't sure they even had a song. A few months later, West sent him a copy of "4, 5 Seconds" with Rihanna on lead vocals.

"I rang him up and asked, 'am I on this song?'" McCartney said, and West said it included his guitar. At Grand Central, McCartney reclaimed it.

Some members of the Beatles' extended family were on hand. Sean Lennon, the son of McCartney's late partner, was in the audience. So was McCartney's wife, Nancy Shevell, and he dedicated the song "My Valentine" to her. Giles Martin, the son of longtime Beatles producer George Martin, was handling the concert's sound.

For a new song about bullying, McCartney invited two women from the audience to tell their stories about being treated poorly. "I got made fun of for being a Beatles fan," one of them said.

That earned her a Beatle hug.

Fans told CBS New York they could not believe their good fortune.

"I was shocked, I've never won anything like this," said Adam Birnbaum.

"I was freaking out," said Sarah Saul. "I love Paul McCartney."

"We've grown up with him, he's like another friend," said Keri Butcher. "He's like our confidant. The new song confidant? You put on Paul McCartney, he knows how to make you feel better."

The train station had also been selling these special edition Paul McCartney "Egypt Station" Metro cards. A nod to the legendary Beatle's new album that came out hours before he took the stage.

"Typical Paul," said Mike Rood. "I've been following his career in the way he does these things for a while now and I love the fact that he can still be sneaky with fans."

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.


https://www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-wants-jeff-sessions-to-investigate-new-york-times-op-ed/
NEWS VIDEO: NARROWING THE HUNT

WRITTEN ARTICLE
http://time.com/5390197/trump-sessions-investigate-op-ed-author/
President Trump Says Jeff Sessions Should Investigate Identity of New York Times Op-Ed Author
By KEN THOMAS, ZEKE MILLER AND JONATHAN LEMIRE / AP Updated: September 7, 2018 1:30 PM ET

(FARGO, N.D.) — President Donald Trump declared Friday the Department of Justice should try to identify the writer of a bitingly critical New York Times opinion piece, purportedly submitted by a member of an administration “resistance” movement straining to thwart his most dangerous impulses.Trump cited “national security” in an interview with reporters aboard Air Force One as he called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to open an investigation to unmask the author. He also said he was exploring the potential of bringing legal action against the newspaper over the publication of the essay two days earlier.

“Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it’s national security,” Trump said. If the person has a high-level security clearance, he said, “I don’t want him in those meetings.”

It’s all but unthinkable that the Justice Department could open an investigation into the op-ed article. Though it was strongly critical of Trump, no classified information appears to have been revealed by the author or leaked to the newspaper, which would be one crucial bar to clear before a leak investigation could even be contemplated.

Still Trump’s call is the latest test of the independence of the Justice Department, which is supposed to make investigative and charging decisions without political interference from the White House.

A day earlier, Trump’s top lieutenants stepped forward to repudiate the op-ed in a show of loyalty to their incensed boss, who has ordered aides to unmask the writer.

By email, by tweet and on camera, the denials paraded in Thursday from Cabinet-level officials — and even Vice President Mike Pence — apparently crafted for an audience of one, seated in the Oval Office. Senior officials in key national security and economic policy roles charged the article’s writer with cowardice, disloyalty and acting against America’s interests in harsh terms that mimicked the president’s own words.

In an interview Thursday with Fox News, Trump said the author “may not be a Republican, it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state person who has been there for a long time.”

However, there is a long list of officials who plausibly could have been the author. Many have privately shared some of the article’s same concerns about Trump with colleagues, friends and reporters.

With such a wide circle of potential suspicion, Trump’s men and women felt they had no choice but to speak out. The denials and condemnations came in from far and wide: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis denied authorship on a visit to India; Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke chimed in from American Samoa. In Washington, the claims of “not me” echoed from Vice President Pence’s office, from Energy Secretary Rick Perry, from Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman from Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and other Cabinet members.

The author professed to be a member of that same inner circle. So could the denials be trusted? There was no surefire way to know, and that only deepened the president’s frustrations.

White House officials did not respond to requests to elaborate on Trump’s call for the writer to be turned over to the government or on the unsupported national security grounds of his demand. Some people who agreed with the writer’s points suggested the president’s reaction actually confirmed the author’s concerns.

Rudy Giuliani, the president’s attorney, suggested that it “would be appropriate” for Trump to ask for a formal investigation into the identity of the op-ed author.

“Let’s assume it’s a person with a security clearance. If they feel writing this is appropriate, maybe they feel it would be appropriate to disclose national security secrets, too. That person should be found out and stopped,” Giuliani said.

As the initial scramble to unmask the writer proved fruitless, attention turned to the questions the article raised, which have been whispered in Washington for more than a year: Is Trump truly in charge, and could a divided executive branch pose a danger to the country?

Former CIA Director John Brennan, a fierce Trump critic, told NBC, “This is not sustainable to have an executive branch where individuals are not following the orders of the chief executive. … A wounded lion is a very dangerous animal, and I think Donald Trump is wounded.”

The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the resistance “working diligently from within” the administration, said, “Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.”

“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the author continued. “We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”

First lady Melania Trump issued a statement backing her husband. She praised the free press as “important to our democracy” but assailed the writer, saying, “You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.”

Down Pennsylvania Avenue, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he did not know of any role Congress would have to investigate, though Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Trump ally, said the legislative body could take part.

The writer said Trump aides are aware of the president’s faults and “many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them.”


Miller reported from Washington and Lemire reported from New York. AP writers Catherine Lucey, Mary Clare Jalonick, Eric Tucker, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed reporting.


VIDEO ONLY -- “... WE’RE GOING TO GET THESE PEOPLE ON THE COURT.”

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/documents-expose-kavanaugh-as-political-operator-in-gop-machine-1315613763959?v=raila&
RACHEL MADDOW
Documents expose Kavanaugh as political operator in GOP machine
Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and legal correspondent at Slate, talks with Rachel Maddow about what Brett Kavanaugh's past documents and contradictions in his testimony reveal about his political nature.
Sep.07.2018



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/08/single-tweet-bernie-sanders-debunks-trumps-lies-about-social-security-and-medicare
Published on
Saturday, September 08, 2018
byCommon Dreams

-- In Single Tweet, Bernie Sanders Debunks Trump's Lies About Social Security and Medicare
-- The president claimed this week that he and Republican lawmakers are "going to protect your Social Security" and are "saving Medicare."

byJessica Corbett, staff writer

PHOTOGRAPH -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called out President Donald Trump for his lies about Social Security and Medicare this week. (Photo: Paul Morigi/Brookings/cc)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) turned to Twitter Friday evening to call out President Donald Trump's latest lies that he is "going to protect your Social Security" and Republicans are "saving Medicare" from Democrats' supposed efforts to "destroy" the social safety net programs—which actually have been consistently targeted by the Trump administration and GOP lawmakers.

Debunking Trump's remarks from two events this week, Sanders—known as a champion of Medicare for All and legislation that aims to improve the lives of low-income people—shared screenshots of several news articles detailing the Trump administration and Republican politicians' ongoing efforts to dismantle programs which provide benefits to older and impoverished Americans.

"Trump's budget cuts Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, breaking core campaign promise," declares a ThinkProgress headline from February, while the title of a November Los Angeles Times article reads, "Sen. Rubio tells a secret: After giving a tax cut to the rich, GOP will cut Social Security and Medicare."

Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Last night, Trump was in Montana, telling people that Democrats want to "destroy your Social Security" and are "going to ruin your Medicare."

Really? That's funny...

7,600
6:41 PM - Sep 7, 2018

At a Thursday night campaign rally in Montana for GOP Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, according to the New York Times, Trump claimed that Democratic elected officials are going to hurt your Social Security so badly, and they're killing you on Medicare. Just remember that. I'm going to protect your Social Security. We're going to take care of your Social Security. We're going to take care of your Social Security. Matt Rosendale is going to make sure we’re not touching your Social Security and your Medicare is only going one way. That's stronger. They're going to end up taking it away from you, and you won't even know what happened.

The Times noted that the president also had said on Wednesday:

The Democrats will destroy Social Security. We're saving Medicare. The Democrats want to destroy Medicare. If you look at what they're doing, they're going to destroy Medicare. And we will save it. We will keep it going. We're making it stronger. We're making Social Security stronger.

Contrary to Trump's public comments this week, his administration and Republicans in Congress—who gave rich Americans and corporations $1.5 trillion in tax cuts last year—diligently have worked to undermine the nation's already inadequate social safety net programs.

In February, as Common Dreams reported, "the White House unveiled its 2019 budget (pdf) blueprint that calls for $1.7 trillion in cuts to crucial safety net programs over the next decade—including $237 billion in cuts to Medicare alone."

A "scathing" United Nations report published earlier this summer outlined how Trump and Republican lawmakers are waging, in the words of the report's author, "a systematic attack on America's welfare program that is undermining the social safety net for those who can't cope on their own," all while crafting legislation to benefit the richest Americans at the expense of the poorest.

In July, the Trump administration proclaimed that the "War on Poverty" was "largely over," despite millions of Americans still living in poverty. Anti-poverty advocates and experts quickly rebuked the administration's claim, charging that it came as "part of a carefully calculated strategy to reinforce myths about the people these programs help...in order to make them easier to cut."

Sanders and many Democrats, meanwhile, are working to save and even dramatically overhaul and expand such programs. In an op-ed published this week, Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) asserted, "The government has a moral responsibility to provide for the vulnerable—the children, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled."

"At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, and when millions of our fellow Americans are working at starvation wages," they concluded, "we must create an economy that works for all—not just the people on top."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License


WHO IS RO KHANNA? HE IS WELL QUALIFIED BOTH EDUCATIONALLY AND BY EXPERIENCE FOR CANDIDACY IN CONGRESS IN MY VIEW. TO SEE THE DETAILS, GO TO THE WIKI WEBSITE AND READ IT. SUMMARY: HE MIGHT MAKE A GOOD VICE PRESIDENT IN 2020 TO SANDERS’ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY. THERE’S A LITTLE WISHFUL THINKING HERE, BUT I SAY GO WHERE YOU WANT AND NEED TO BE, RATHER THAN TO SOME OTHER PLACE JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE OFFERED A FREE TICKET THERE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro_Khanna
Ro Khanna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rohit Khanna (/ˈroʊ ˈkɑːnə/; born September 13, 1976) is an American academic, lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for California's 17th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated eight-term incumbent Representative Mike Honda in the general election on November 8, 2016, after first running for the same seat in 2014. Khanna also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama from August 8, 2009, to August 2011.

Khanna only accepts donations from individuals and is one of only six members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and ten total members of Congress, who do not take campaign contributions from Political Action Committees (PACs) or corporations.[1][2][3][4]

Early life and education

Khanna was born in 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[5] His parents are Punjabi immigrants to the United States from India. His father is a chemical engineer who graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Michigan, and his mother is a former substitute school teacher.[5][6][7] Khanna's maternal grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, was part of India's independence movement, working with Lala Lajpat Rai, and spent years in jail in the pursuit of human rights and freedom.[8][9][10] In a Boston Globe op-ed, Khanna and Representative John Lewis examined how Gandhi's movement was intertwined with the civil rights movement.[11] Khanna received his B.A. degree in economics with honors from the University of Chicago in 1998, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[5][12][13] He attended Yale Law School, receiving his law degree in 2001. He specialized in intellectual property law.[14]

Early work in politics, law, and teaching
As a student at the University of Chicago, Khanna worked for William D. Burns walking precincts during Barack Obama's first campaign for the Illinois Senate in 1996.[15][16][17] Khanna interned for Jack Quinn when Quinn served as the Chief of Staff for Vice President Al Gore.[18]

President Obama appointed Khanna to a role in the United States Department of Commerce in 2009.[12] In his role as deputy assistant secretary,[19] Khanna led international trade missions[20] and worked to increase United States exports.[21] He was later appointed to the White House Business Council.[19] Khanna resigned from the Department of Commerce in August 2011 to join Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a law firm located in Silicon Valley.[22] His pro bono legal activity includes work with the Mississippi Center for Justice on several contractor fraud cases on behalf of Hurricane Katrina victims and co-authoring an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in the Mt. Holly case to allow for race discrimination suits under the Fair Housing Act of 1968.[23][24] As part of a pro bono legal team, Khanna filed an amicus brief on behalf of 13 of the country's leading social scientists in the Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. That brief included research that provided a deeper understanding of how a diverse educational environment benefits students and cited studies showing that race-conscious admissions policies used by institutions like the University of Texas result in a more diverse student body.[25][26][27]

Khanna teaches economics at Stanford University and law at the Santa Clara University School of Law,[5] and has taught American Jurisprudence at San Francisco State University.[28] He wrote a book on American competitiveness in business, Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Still Key to America's Future, which was published in 2012.[19][29] Governor Jerry Brown appointed Khanna to the California Workforce Investment Board in 2012.[30] Khanna served on the board of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte from 2006 until 2013 while on leave from the Obama Administration.[31]

“U.S. House of Representatives . . . .”



COMMON DREAMS AGAIN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS ABOUT "ABORTION INDUCING DRUGS" (CONTRACEPTION)

https://www.commondreams.org/further/2018/09/06/news-flash-duh-kavanaugh-contraception-not-abortion
Thursday, September 06, 2018
News Flash (Duh) For Kavanaugh: Contraception Is Not Abortion
byAbby Zimet, staff writer

PHOTOGRAPH -- Shameful sham. Reuters Photo. Front photo by Alex Brandon/AP

In what was dubbed a telling "red-alarm moment" in his turbulent confirmation hearings Thursday, increasingly slimy Brett Kavanaugh dropped his fastidious "Roe v. Wade is important precedent" mask long enough to conflate birth control - a form of basic health care used by over 95% of women during their lifetimes - with "abortion-inducing drugs," a dog whistle used by extremist ideologues and blasted by critics as “anti-woman, anti-science propaganda.” With Kavanaugh's anti-choice views already clear, he had till then adopted a strategic caution, repeatedly assuring legislators he viewed Roe v. Wade as “important precedent” and "the settled law of the land."

"I understand the importance people attach to the Roe v. Wade decision," he told Diane Feinstein. "I don't live in a bubble." He does, however, live in a cagey house of lies and half-truths. He bickered with her about who "legal scholars" are; belittled women as "passionate," aka "hysterical," about Roe v. Wade; somehow forgot about a 2003 email in which he dismissed the "precedent" of Roe to argue, “Courts can always overrule"; and finally, lamely had to admit to the fabulous Kamala Harris that he drew a blank on laws governing men's bodies.

Kavanaugh's tap dancing around the issue came to an abrupt halt when he tripped over a question from Ted Cruz about a case brought by Priests For Life, an (redundancy alert) anti-abortion and anti-contraceptive Catholic group that in 2013 filed a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act's requirement that health care providers cover birth control. The priests argued the rule violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the same argument used in Hobby Lobby's successful 2014 lawsuit. The priests' suit was dismissed, but Kavanaugh dissented; this year, the group applauded his nomination "because he sided with us when we had to defend our religious freedom."

Explaining the case to Cruz, he argued the mandate was "a substantial burden on their religious exercise (that) would make them complicit in the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objected to (sic)." Except whoah: The case wasn't about abortion; it was about contraceptives, which duh, prevent pregnancy. Furious critics called his claim "flat-out wrong," "a GROSS misunderstanding of fact," and "an anti-science lie" proving, again, that, "People who can’t be bothered to learn the basics of how something works should never be allowed to make a decision regarding that something." "Newsflash, Brett Kavanaugh," railed Elizabeth Warren. "Contraception is NOT abortion. Anyone who says so is peddling extremist ideology - not science - and has no business sitting on the Supreme Court." If he gets there, warned Dawn Laguens of Planned Parenthood, “Women have every reason to believe their health and their lives are at stake.”

birth_toon_settled_215310_600.jpg

birth_kamala_gettyimages-1026740002.w700

We need Kamala Harris instead of this weasel. Getty Image.

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MADDOW TIME
MSNBC MADDOW

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/6/18
Democrats aim for potential cracks in GOP support for Kavanaugh
Rachel Maddow outlines the strategy by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to highlight specific problems with Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court candidate that have the potential to turn some of their Republican colleagues to vote no.


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/6/18
Overlap in Kavanaugh nomination, Trump Russia probe becomes clear
Rachel Maddow points out that between the selection of Brett Kavanaugh for his position on presidential prosecutions and the choice of a lawyer for witnesses in the Trump Russia investigation to process Kavanaugh documents, the Kavanaugh nomination and the Russia investigation are more related than they appear on the surface. Duration: 4:45


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/6/18
Swalwell: Kavanaugh 'the wrong judge at the wrong time'
Rep. Eric Swalwell talks with Rachel Maddow about why the Trump Russia investigation should not just preclude Donald Trump from naming a Supreme Court justice, but should also rule out Brett Kavanaugh. Duration: 3:54


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/6/18
Kavanaugh denies discussing Russia probe with Trump lawyer's firm
Senator Kamala Harris talks with Rachel Maddow about Brett Kavanaugh's evasiveness on whether he discussed Robert Mueller's Trump Russia investigation with anyone from the law firm of Marc Kasowitz, a lawyer retained by Donald Trump. Duration: 7:50


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/6/18
Harris makes the most of difficult media conditions in the Senate
Rachel Maddow shares a photo of Senator Kamala Harris being interviewed by phone earlier in the show from a Senate supply closet while the Kavanaugh nomination hearing was still taking place. Duration: 0:31


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/6/18
Nixon's White House counsel to testify against Kavanaugh Friday
Rachel Maddow alerts viewers that among the witnesses to testify in the Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearing on Friday will be John Dean, Richard Nixon's former White House counsel, who will speak against Kavanaugh's views on investigating a president. Duration: 1:24


EXPECTED SPECIFICS OF BOLTON’S SPEECH TOMORROW

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/bolton-wants-sanction-icc-judges-who-probe-alleged-u-s-n908011
Bolton wants to sanction ICC judges who probe alleged U.S. war crimes
"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court."
by Reuters / Sep.10.2018 / 6:08 AM ET / Updated 6:16 AM ET

PHOTOGRAPH -- U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.MARTIAL TREZZINI / EPA

WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday will adopt an aggressive posture against the International Criminal Court in The Hague, threatening sanctions against its judges if they proceed with an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, is to make the announcement in a speech in Washington. It will be his first major address since joining the Trump White House.

"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton will say, according to a draft of his speech seen by Reuters.

Related

WORLD NEWS
'The Kennedys of the Taliban movement' lose their patriarch
Bolton will also say that the State Department will announce the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington out of concern about Palestinian attempts to prompt an ICC investigation of Israel.

The PLO office in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel," Bolton's draft text says.

The draft speech says the Trump administration "will fight back" if the International Criminal Court formally proceeds with opening an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. service members and intelligence professionals during the war in Afghanistan.

If such a probe proceeds, the Trump administration will consider banning judges and prosecutors from entering the United States, put sanctions on any funds they have in the U.S. financial system and prosecute them in the American court system.

Recommended

U.S. plans to close PLO office in D.C., Bolton blasts Int'l Criminal Court

Bolton says Trump administration will close Palestinian Liberation Organization office in D.C.
"We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us," says Bolton's draft text.

In addition, the United States may negotiate more binding, bilateral agreements to prohibit nations from surrendering Americans to the Hague court, the text says.

The court's aim is to bring to justice the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The United States did not ratify the Rome treaty that established the International Criminal Court in 2002, with then-President George W. Bush opposed to the court. President Barack Obama took some steps to cooperate with the organization.

"We will consider taking steps in the U.N. Security Council to constrain the court’s sweeping powers, including to ensure that the ICC does not exercise jurisdiction over Americans and the nationals of our allies that have not ratified the Rome Statute," Bolton's draft text says.


I’M UNABLE TO FIND THE ALLEGED “PROBE INTO AMERICAN WAR CRIMES IN AFGHANISTAN”: I HAVE SEARCHED PRETTY EXTENSIVELY FOR THE ORIGINAL STIMULUS OF THESE TWO OUTRAGED COMMENTS FROM BOLTON AND TRUMP ON A SUPPOSED ICC PROBE INTO AMERICAN WAR CRIMES IN AFGHANISTAN. I CAN ONLY FIND ONE ARTICLE WHICH IS LIKELY TO BE THE ORIGINAL SOURCE OF THEIR ANGER AND PANIC, AND THIS IS FROM 2017. WHY WOULD THEY BE REACTING TO IT NOW? I WILL INSERT IT BELOW. I HOPE THIS IS NOT ANOTHER DONALD TRUMP RAMPAGE BASED ON NOTHING. IF IT IS, RACHEL MADDOW SAYS WE SHOULD BE LOOKING FOR OTHER TRUMP STORIES, WHICH WOULD BE A SCANDAL IF THEY WERE IN FULL NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL FOCUS. SOMETIMES HE DOES DO A SLEIGHT OF HAND TRICK TO DISTRACT THE EYE FROM THE REAL ACTION.

https://www.dw.com/en/icc-prosecutor-asks-for-probe-into-war-crimes-in-afghanistan/a-41232958
ICC prosecutor asks for probe into war crimes in Afghanistan
An international war crimes prosecutor has said she will seek an official probe into violations in Afghanistan. If approved by ICC judges, the probe could include the US military and CIA.
DATE 04.11.2017

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Friday she would ask its judges to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, in a probe that could include US forces.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement that a there was "a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in connection with the armed conflict in Afghanistan" since the US intervention in 2001.

"Following a meticulous preliminary examination... I have come to the conclusion that all legal criteria to commence an investigation have been met," she said.

Read more: Fatou Bensouda: Critics 'don't understand the ICC'

Judges at the Hague-based court would decide whether to proceed.

Bensouda didn't mention which armed actors in Afghanistan should face an investigation, but said "the ultimate focus will be upon those most responsible for the most serious crimes allegedly committed in connection with the situation in Afghanistan."

The request for authorization includes alleged war crimes committed since May 2003 in Afghanistan as well as others committed since July 2002 on territory of ICC member states.

Torture and detention facilities

ICC prosecutors in a report last year said there were "potential cases" of war crimes committed by the Taliban, Haqqani network, Afghan forces and the US armed forces and Central Intelligence Agency.

Possible war crimes committed by the US military and CIA were "not the abuses of a few isolated individuals," prosecutors said in the report.

The allegations against the United States relate to torturing Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners in Afghanistan and at CIA detention facilities in Lithuania, Poland and Romania in order to obtain "actionable intelligence from detainees."

The ICC was established in 2002 as a world court to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It has nearly 120 members.

US not an ICC member

The United States has not ratified the ICC's Rome Statute, meaning any judicial proceedings are unlikely to lead to the arrest of CIA officers or US military personnel. However, Americans alleged to be involved in war crimes could be subject to international arrest warrants.

In not joining the ICC, previous US administrations have cited concerns that US military members or officials could be prosecuted

The ICC only acts when a member state's government is unwilling or unable to pursue war crimes charges. Its jurisdiction is limited to ICC member states, which include Afghanistan, and only if charges were not prosecuted at home.

However, the court is authorized to investigate crimes committed by foreign soldiers on the territory of a member state.

The United States Senate investigated the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" and detention program in 2014 but no one has been prosecuted. The Obama administration in 2009 banned controversial practices including waterboarding, sleep depravation and rectal feeding.

Amnesty International Film über Folter Waterboarding (picture alliance / dpa)
A scene from the Amnesty International film "Stuff of Life" shows a simulated prisoner being waterboarded.

A 2009 US Justice Department investigation into allegations of torture found there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

ICC prosecutors have also blamed the Taliban for some 17,000 civilian deaths from 2007 to December 2015, including "numerous attacks" on schools, hospitals and mosques.

Human rights organizations welcomed the ICC prosecutor's decision to seek a formal investigation in front of a tribunal.

"This is a seminal moment for the ICC," said Amnesty International's head of International Justice, Solomon Sacco.

"Justice for victims of the Afghanistan conflict has taken far too long to arrive, but investigations like this one are the reason the court was set up — to provide a last chance for justice when state parties have failed to deliver it," he said.

cw/bw (AFP, AP, Reuters)


“THE UNITED STATES WILL USE ANY MEANS NECESSARY TO PROTECT OUR CITIZENS AND THOSE OF OUR ALLIES FROM UNJUST PROSECUTION BY THIS ILLEGITIMATE COURT," BOLTON SAID.

ONE DISTURBING POSSIBILITY IS THAT, SINCE THIS ADDRESS WAS TO BE DELIVERED ON SEPTEMBER 11, THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNSPEAKABLE ATTACK BY BIN LADEN ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER TOWERS AND THE PENTAGON, COULD IT BE THAT THERE ISN’T ACTUALLY A NEW THREAT OF ACTION FROM THE ICC, BUT AN ATTEMPT TO ROUSE THE PATRIOTISM OF THE RIGHTIST BASE TO PROTECT TRUMP FROM SOMETHING ELSE THAT WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YET.

THAT GROUP WHO FOLLOW HIM GENERALLY FEAR AND HATE “WORLD GOVERNMENT” IN GENERAL. I WOULDN’T WANT A MILITARISTIC “TAKEOVER” OF NATIONS AROUND THE WORLD EITHER, BUT INCREASED PEACEFUL INTERACTIONS WOULD BE GREAT. IT’S SO VERY UNLIKELY TO HAPPEN THAT I DON’T WORRY. WE CAN’T EVEN MAKE SIMPLE DECISIONS FOR NEEDED AGREEMENTS. THAT IS ONE OF THOSE CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAT HAVE BEEN AROUND AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER.

A TRULY POWERFUL WORLD GOVERNMENT WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO FUNCTION IN A USEFUL WAY TO BENEFIT THE COMMON MAN, AND IT CERTAINLY WOULD VIOLATE MY PERSONAL FEELINGS FOR OUR FREEDOM IN THE USA. IF THERE IS A THREAT AGAINST US BY ANYONE, I WANT TO KNOW THE BASICS AT ANY RATE ABOUT IT. I HOPE FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THIS COMES OUT SOON; OR THAT THE FAKE NEWS ORIGIN OF TODAY’S WHITE HOUSE PANIC, EMERGES.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/threatens-icc-judges-sanctions-180910113100340.html
US 'threatens ICC judges with sanctions'
National Security Adviser John Bolton says US will target ICC if it investigates alleged American war crimes.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 14 minutes ago

PHOTOGRAPH -- The US national security adviser threatened the International Criminal Court on Monday [File:Reuters]

The United States launched a blistering verbal attack on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and threatened sanctions against its judges if they proceed with a probe into alleged war crimes by Americans in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, made the announcement in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, in Washington, DC, on Monday.

"Today, on the eve of September 11th, I want to deliver a clear and unambiguous message on behalf of the president. The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton said.

"We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will certainly not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us."

Crimes in Afghanistan?

In 2016, the ICC said US armed forces and the CIA might have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afganistan.

Is the war on terror failing?

Established in 2002 under the Rome Statute, the ICC is the world's first permanent court set up to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
More than 120 countries around the world are members, but superpowers - including the United States, Russia and China - have not signed up.

On the ICC, Bolton said if any investigations go ahead on alleged American war crimes, the Trump administration will consider banning judges and prosecutors from entering the United States, put sanctions on any funds they have in the US financial system, and prosecute them in US courts.

The court "has been ineffective, unaccountable, and indeed outright dangerous", he said.

'Proudest achievements'

It was Bolton's first major address since joining the Trump administration. He was previously the US' ambassador to the UN in the George W Bush government and fought against the ICC in the 2000s.

"The International Criminal Court constituted an assault on the constitutional rights of the American people and the sovereignty of the United States," he said.

"At President Bush's direction, we next launched a global diplomatic campaign to protect Americans from being delivered into the ICC's hands. We negotiated about 100 binding, bilateral agreements to prevent other countries from delivering US personnel to the ICC. It remains one of my proudest achievements."

Can the US defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan?

There was no immediate response from ICC officials or member states.

Bolton also announced the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, DC, because of the Palestinian attempt to get the ICC to investigate Israel for crimes committed during its decades-old occupation of Palestine.

The national security adviser's announcement drew applause from the conservative crowd.

The action against the PLO is the latest in a series of measures by the Trump administration against the Palestinian leadership.


The 9/11 decade
FOR THE SHEER BEAUTY AND SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF IT, LOOK AT THIS WEBSITE. AL JAZEERA WORLD

VIDEO -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V6s6sND0yw
The Hundred Million Dollar Home | Al Jazeera World - YouTube
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES



TWO ARTICLES FROM THE SCIENCE DESK OF FOX NEWS. --
THE FIRST, BY JENNIFER EARL, IS ACCURATE ACCORDING TO OTHER ARTICLES ON GOOGLE. SNAILFISH ARE NOT FICTION, BUT A HEAVILY FURRED LARGE OCEAN CREATURE AS IN THE SECOND ARTICLE SOUNDS LIKE IT PROBABLY IS. IT IS ONE OF THE DEFINITIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF MAMMALS IN GENERAL THAT THEY DO HAVE HAIR, BUT WHALES AREN’T "SHAGGY," AND FUR SEALS HAVE SMOOTH FUR INSTEAD. IT WAS SUCH A GREAT VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPH, THOUGH, THAT I COULDN'T RESIST PUTTING IT IN. (THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACHS MIGHT PREFER NOT TO LOOK AT IT.)

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/09/10/scientists-find-3-bizarre-new-sea-creatures-in-pitch-black-part-pacific-ocean.html
Scientists find 3 bizarre new sea creatures in pitch-black part of Pacific Ocean
Jennifer Earl By Jennifer Earl | Fox News

PHOTOGRAPH -- A CT scan of an Atacama snailfish, which was recently discovered in the Atacama Trench. (Newcastle University)

Three bizarre-looking types of deep sea creatures have been spotted in one of the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean — the Atacama Trench, located up to 7 miles below the ocean's surface off the coast of Peru and Chile.

A group of 40 scientists from 17 different nations teamed up to search the freezing, pitch-black area, using cameras and other equipment.

With these tools, they were able to find three interesting creatures, which they believe are types of snailfish, about 5 miles deep. For now, the fish are simply being called the pink, blue and purple Atacama snailfish.

MYSTERIOUS FUR-COVERED SEA 'MONSTER' WASHES UP ON BEACH: 'COULD IT BE SOME ANCIENT CREATURE?'

"These fish are part of the Liparidae family and do not conform to the preconceived stereotypical image of what a deep-sea fish should look like," England's Newcastle University, which joined the expedition, wrote in a news statement Monday. "Instead of giant teeth and a menacing frame, the fishes that roam in the deepest parts of the ocean are small, translucent, bereft of scales — and highly adept at living where few other organisms can."

Researchers were able to capture footage of their new finds, and even captured one by luring it into a trap.

snailfish newcastle -- Scientists discovered three new species of snailfish about 5 miles below the ocean's surface. (Newcastle University)

Dr. Thomas Linley, who works at Newcastle University, said it was clear snailfish are among the top predators in the deep depths of the ocean. They use speed to their advantage.

"There is something about the snailfish (fish of the family Liparidae) that allows them to adapt to living very deep. Beyond the reach of other fish they are free of competitors and predators," he explained in an online statement.

500-POUND GOLIATH GROUPER EATS SHARK AS SHOCKED FLORIDA FISHERMEN WATCH: 'HE JUST SUCKED IT IN'

But the fish wouldn't be able to survive in warmer temperatures.

“Their gelatinous structure means they are perfectly adapted to living at extreme pressure and in fact the hardest structures in their bodies are the bones in their inner ear which give them balance and their teeth. Without the extreme pressure and cold to support their bodies they are extremely fragile and melt rapidly when brought to the surface," Linely added.

Scientists hope to continue studying the newly-discovered creatures and plan to put their findings, including video footage and photos, on display at the Challenger Conference 2018 at Newcastle University this week.

Jennifer Earl is an SEO editor for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter @jenearlyspeakin.


IS THIS ONE OF THOSE PHONY STORIES? IT’S SHOCKING, DISGUSTING, AND IT SUPPOSEDLY HAPPENED IN SIBERIA. HI, PRESIDENT PUTIN!

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/08/16/mysterious-fur-covered-sea-monster-washes-up-on-beach-could-it-be-some-ancient-creature.html
Mysterious fur-covered sea 'monster' washes up on beach: 'Could it be some ancient creature?'
Jennifer Earl By Jennifer Earl | Fox News

PHOTOGRAPH -- Several giant, hairy creatures have washed up in recent years. (REUTERS)

Is it the remains of a woolly mammoth — or a decaying whale? Those were the questions on beachgoers' minds as they gathered around a giant, hairy sea creature that was beached in Siberia.

The mysterious creature, which doesn't appear to have a prominent face with eyes, recently washed up from the Bering Sea.

"The most interesting thing to me is that the creature is covered with tubular fur. Could it be some ancient creature?" local Svetlana Dyadenko asked, according to The Siberian Times. "I wish scientists could inspect this enigma that [the] ocean threw at us."

MYSTERIOUS 20-FOOT SEA CREATURE COVERED IN SHAGGY HAIR WASHES UP ON PHILIPPINES BEACH

The creature is about three times as big as an average man and some reported seeing at least one tentacle, prompting some to question whether it was a huge octopus. The carcass had a pungent odor.

Marine biologist Sergei Kornev, who works at the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), told the newspaper the "globster" was most likely a piece of a whale that had been dead for a while.

"Under the influence of the sea, time and various animals, from the smallest to the largest, a whale often takes on bizarre forms," he explained. "This is only a part of a whale, not a whole one."

It's currently unclear whether researchers will take tissue or DNA samples from the creature.

This isn't the first time a shaggy-haired "monster" has been spotted on a beach.

A similar creature washed up on a Philippines beach in May, causing chaos in the San Antonio area. A video of the massive greyish white creature was posted to YouTube, showing two men with ropes working together to pull the monster out of the water.

MUPPET ON MARS? NASA IMAGE FROM THE RED PLANET SPARKS COMPARISONS TO FAMOUS PUPPET

Based on the size and shape of the creature, and what marine experts observed, fishery experts confirmed it was the body of a whale.

In February 2017, another odd creature washed ashore in the Philippines, just off the Dinagat Islands.

Similarly, the animal was 20 feet long, weighed around 4,000 pounds and had "long, shaggy white hair," according to a National Geographic report at the time.

Jennifer Earl is an SEO editor for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter @jenearlyspeakin.


ACCORDING TO INVESTORS.COM, OBAMA HAS VOICED APPROVAL OF THE SANDERS PLATFORM. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAD SEEN ANYTHING STATING OBAMA’S POSITION ON THE SANDERS PHENOMENON. I’M GLAD TO SEE THE GROWING SPREAD OF A MUCH MORE LIBERAL INFLUENCE IN THE PARTY, AND ALSO IN THE COUNTRY.

OBAMA SAID "DEMOCRATS AREN'T JUST RUNNING ON GOOD OLD IDEAS LIKE A HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE," OBAMA SAID, "THEY'RE RUNNING ON GOOD NEW IDEAS LIKE MEDICARE FOR ALL, GIVING WORKERS SEATS ON CORPORATE BOARDS, REVERSING THE MOST EGREGIOUS CORPORATE TAX CUTS TO MAKE SURE COLLEGE STUDENTS GRADUATE DEBT-FREE."

PEOPLE ARE ATTRACTED TO THE IDEAS RATHER THAN MERELY THE IMPRESSIVE SPEAKING STYLE AND NIMBLE WITS THAT BERNIE SANDERS HAS. THE UNNAMED WRITER OF THIS INVESTORS.COM ARTICLE DOESN’T SHARE THE LOVE, THOUGH. TOO BAD.

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obama-bernie-sanders-socialist-agenda/
Obama Just Bear-Hugged Bernie Sanders' Socialist Agenda … And Nobody Noticed
FacebookTwitterLinkedInShare Reprints
4:23 PM ET

Unmasking Obama: Barack Obama is making headlines for blasting President Donald Trump in hopes that it will rally Democrats in November. What's being ignored is the fact that Obama also revealed his affinity for extreme left-wing Democrats.

Obama sharply broke with tradition by launching a blistering attack on his successor to the White House in a speech at the University of Illinois on Friday. He said Trump was a "threat to our democracy," talked about the "crazy stuff coming out of this White House," and called for the "restoration of honesty and decency and lawfulness in government."

That's what got all the attention. What nobody noticed was a line deep into Obama's speech, where he endorses the full range of far-left policies promoted by the likes of socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

"Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like a higher minimum wage," Obama said, "they're running on good new ideas like Medicare for all, giving workers seats on corporate boards, reversing the most egregious corporate tax cuts to make sure college students graduate debt-free."

Let's leave aside the disastrous $15 minimum wage hike that has now become a litmus test for Democrats. As we've noted in this space many times, doubling the federal minimum wage will kill millions of jobs and make those it's meant to help worse off.

That's not speculation. It's what's already happening in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and other "progressive" cities and states that rushed to embrace this horribly misguided and economically illiterate idea.

Look at what else Obama is endorsing.

He calls Sanders' "Medicare for all" $33 trillion government takeover of health care a good idea. Sanders' plan is more radical than anything any socialist country has ever tried. "Medicare for all" would outlaw private insurance and have the government pay all the costs of health care. Even in so-called socialist paradises like Sweden and Denmark, consumers pay a substantial portion of health costs out-of-pocket.

Obama says he's on board with Elizabeth Warren's plan for a government takeover of corporate decision-making — which she euphemistically calls the "Accountable Capitalism Act*."

In Warren's vision, corporations would have to get federal approval to operate, which the government would only grant if those companies follow her dictates as to what constitutes "good" corporate behavior. Among the requirements, companies would have to let workers select 40% of corporate board members.

Even Warren's backers admit that her plan could destroy trillions of dollars in market value. And Black Entertainment Television co-founder Robert Johnson called Warren's plan "a solution in search of a problem that's absolutely not necessary." Yet Obama calls it a "good new idea." Unlike Warren or Obama, Johnson knows what it takes to run a business.

Killing Prosperity

Obama also said he supports "reversing," not modifying or tinkering with, the pro-growth corporate tax cuts.

Never mind that those corporate tax cuts have sparked a surge of economic activity, contributing to bonuses, improved benefits and rising wages for millions of workers.

Last month, wages for blue collar workers shot up at the fastest rate in nine years. Median household income has climbed 4% under Trump — it was flat over the course of Obama's eight years.

Just this week, the Washington Post — of all places — reports that job growth among blue collar workers is the fastest it's been in more than 30 years. Economic optimism is at record highs and financial stress at new lows.

And foreign profits that companies had stashed overseas under the old corporate tax regime are flooding back into the U.S. That means more money invested at home.

Reversing the Trump corporate tax cuts would send the economy back to Obama-era stagnation.

'Free' College

Trump also backs Sanders' idea of free college. Never mind that this would cost taxpayers at least $75 billion a year — a 70% increase in federal education spending. That's assuming colleges don't use all the free money to further hike tuitions. While Sanders and Obama are touting free college, businesses are dropping college requirements for jobs as the labor market tightens.

The one "good new idea" Obama forgot to mention is the fascination among leftist Democrats with "guaranteed government jobs" — something last seen in the Soviet Union's constitution.

"That's why I'm a Democrat," Obama said, "and that's the set of ideas that I believe in."

We don't doubt that.

Obama's embrace of these radical ideas not only exposes him for who he is. Which is not, as the media would have it, a moderate or a centrist. It's also another sign that the Democratic Party is now completely in the hands of radical leftists.


ACCOUNTABLE CAPITALISM ACT* --

“FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS WE HAVE PUT THE AMERICAN STAMP OF APPROVAL ON GIANT CORPORATIONS, EVEN AS THEY HAVE IGNORED THE INTERESTS OF ALL BUT A TINY SLICE OF AMERICANS. WE SHOULD INSIST ON A “‘NEW DEAL.’” FOR SHAME MS. WARREN. FDR IS LONG DEAD, TRUE, BUT THIS IS UNCREATIVE, IT SEEMS TO ME. YOU BORROWED HIS KEY PHRASE WITHOUT GIVING HIM CREDIT; HE IS ONE OF THE TOWERING FIGURES IN OUR HISTORY.

OTHER THAN THAT, I AGREE WITH YOUR STAND ON THINGS, AND I LIKE YOUR IDEAS SUCH AS EMPLOYEES BEING ABLE TO BE SHAREHOLDERS. BERNIE SANDERS DIDN’T MENTION THAT SPECIFICALLY THAT I REMEMBER, NOT THAT HE WOULD DISLIKE THE IDEA I'M SURE. GEORGIA PACIFIC THE PAPER MANUFACTURING MONOLITH DID THIS IN THE 1970S WHEN MY FATHER WAS WORKING FOR THEM, AND HE RECEIVED SHARES OF STOCK WHEN HE RETIRED. MOST COMPANIES ARE STILL VERY OLD-FASHIONED AND GREEDY WITH THEIR EMPLOYEES.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-shouldnt-be-accountable-only-to-shareholders-1534287687
Companies Shouldn’t Be Accountable Only to Shareholders
My new bill would require corporations to answer to employees and other stakeholders as well.
By Elizabeth Warren
Biography
Aug. 14, 2018 7:01 p.m. ET

PHOTOGRAPH -- PHOTO: RICHARD DREW/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Corporate profits are booming, but average wages haven’t budged over the past year. The U.S. economy has run this way for decades, partly because of a fundamental change in business practices dating back to the 1980s. On Wednesday I’m introducing legislation to fix it.

American corporations exist only because the American people grant them charters. Those charters confer valuable privileges—such as limited legal liability for their owners—that enable businesses to turn a profit. What do Americans get in return? What are the obligations of corporate citizenship in the U.S.?

For much of U.S. history, the answers were clear. Corporations sought to succeed in the marketplace, but they also recognized their obligations to employees, customers and the community. As recently as 1981, the Business Roundtable—which represents large U.S. companies—stated that corporations “have a responsibility, first of all, to make available to the public quality goods and services at fair prices, thereby earning a profit that attracts investment to continue and enhance the enterprise, provide jobs, and build the economy.” This approach worked. American companies and workers thrived.

Late in the 20th century, the dynamic changed. Building on work by conservative economist Milton Friedman, a new theory emerged that corporate directors had only one obligation: to maximize shareholder returns. By 1997 the Business Roundtable declared that the “principal objective of a business enterprise is to generate economic returns to its owners.”

That shift has had a tremendous effect on the economy. In the early 1980s, large American companies sent less than half their earnings to shareholders, spending the rest on their employees and other priorities. But between 2007 and 2016, large American companies dedicated 93% of their earnings to shareholders. Because the wealthiest 10% of U.S. households own 84% of American-held shares, the obsession with maximizing shareholder returns effectively means America’s biggest companies have dedicated themselves to making the rich even richer.

In the four decades after World War II, shareholders on net contributed more than $250 billion to U.S. companies. But since 1985 they have extracted almost $7 trillion. That’s trillions of dollars in profits that might otherwise have been reinvested in the workers who helped produce them.

Before “shareholder value maximization” ideology took hold, wages and productivity grew at roughly the same rate. But since the early 1980s, real wages have stagnated even as productivity has continued to rise. Workers aren’t getting what they’ve earned.

Companies also are setting themselves up to fail. Retained earnings were once the foundation for long-term investments. But from 1990 to 2015, nonfinancial U.S. companies invested trillions less than projected, funneling earnings to shareholders instead. This underinvestment handcuffs U.S. enterprise and bestows an advantage on foreign competitors.

The problem may get worse, because executives have a strong financial incentive to prioritize shareholder returns. Before 1980, top CEOs were rarely compensated in equity. Today it accounts for 62% of their pay. Many executives receive additional company shares as a reward for producing short-term share-price increases. This feedback loop has sent CEO pay skyrocketing. The average CEO of a big company now makes 361 times what the average worker makes, up from 42 times in 1980.

Corporate charters, which define the structure and obligations of U.S. companies, are an obvious tool for addressing these skewed incentives. But companies are chartered at the state level. Most states don’t want to demand more of companies, lest they incorporate elsewhere.

That’s where my bill comes in. The Accountable Capitalism Act restores the idea that giant American corporations should look out for American interests. Corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue would be required to get a federal corporate charter. The new charter requires corporate directors to consider the interests of all major corporate stakeholders—not only shareholders—in company decisions. Shareholders could sue if they believed directors weren’t fulfilling those obligations.

This approach follows the “benefit corporation” model, which gives businesses fiduciary responsibilities beyond their shareholders. Thirty-four states already authorize benefit corporations. And successful companies such as Patagonia and Kickstarter have embraced this role.

My bill also would give workers a stronger voice in corporate decision-making at large companies. Employees would elect at least 40% of directors. At least 75% of directors and shareholders would need to approve before a corporation could make any political expenditures. To address self-serving financial incentives in corporate management, directors and officers would not be allowed to sell company shares within five years of receiving them—or within three years of a company stock buyback.

For the past 30 years we have put the American stamp of approval on giant corporations, even as they have ignored the interests of all but a tiny slice of Americans. We should insist on a new deal.

Ms. Warren, a Democrat, is a U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

Appeared in the August 15, 2018, print edition.